Protest, But Be Nice About It: Jewish Exceptionalism

Bob Passi
3 min readMay 3, 2024

First and foremost, if you are going to protest you must be very polite and respectful of others who might not agree with you. Don’t do anything that might hurt someone else’s feelings or sensibilities or appear to be against the established authorities. And above all else, do not, I repeat, do not ever do anything that some might interpret as antisemitic.

Some people seem to be very angry, and even mad, about what the leaders in Israel and the US are doing to the people of Gaza. Some even seem to hate that leadership and see protests as a way to show their strong opposition. But that is not the acceptable way to change. Everyone must see that only civil discourse, through appropriate political channels is the way to affect that kind of change and that all of that takes time and careful deliberation by those in authority.

Let’s be clear about antisemitism, the modern definition seems to have been expanded to include any opposition to anything Benjamin Netanyahu, or Israel, or any Jewish group proposes or wants to do. And to be antisemitic puts you outside of any human morality, almost an untouchable. So, above all else, don’t ever do anything that anyone could call “antisemitic”, or you surely will be pilloried or punished. All justifiable, of course, since that has almost become one of the Commandments. That means, do not ever be angry at Israel, the only Jewish state, or Netanyahu, or anyone who supports the actions of Israel. I mean don’t ever, ever, ever do that.

I am somewhat perplexed by some Jewish people in the US, in the world, and even in Israel itself, who are opposed to what Netanyahu is doing in Gaza. Are they also to be labelled as antisemitic? It makes no sense to me.

If Israel is doing things, even things that might look like genocide, first allow them to tell you why it is crucial to commit genocide, so you can see why you should not ever, ever, ever disagree with their reasoning. It is all OK no matter how it might look to others who simply do not understand what it is like to be an Israeli.

To be an Israeli and to act as a representative of Jewish thought and action in the modern world is to see how wrong the international rules are, how misunderstood Israelis are, and how righteous are those Israeli actions. Israelis are nothing like the Palestinians, or any other indigenous population of the world. There is nothing about the formation of their nation that is anything like any previous European colonies in the world. Israel is unique and exceptional, far above all international, social, or even human norms.

You should really be protesting against the Palestinians for causing Jewish loss and discomfort, because nothing, and I mean nothing could ever justify that. I mean the Jews went through that once before, and you saw what happened, and therefore, apparently, Israel feels that nothing should ever happen to even hint at that. I mean, “Never Again”. And whatever they feel they have to do to prevent even a hint of that is totally justified, I mean, totally justified.

In fact, we should be grateful to Israel for showing us how to deal with any threats, even perceived threats, to nip them in the bud, to kill any enemies, including the wives and children, including their extended families, indeed their entire ethnic group to prevent any possible future threat or even any wrong ideas about Israel or Jews.

There, it is good to get that off my chest and make it clear that the only acceptable protests should be against any who would question Israel or Netanyahu. Why even our president, Mr. Biden, and many Congressional leaders and college administrators agree. Come on, what more do you need to see how righteous this “war” to wipe out the Palestinians in Gaza can be.

Israel is simply ahead of the times. It is redefining humanitarian treatment in a modern world. We should observe and learn. Lead on Mr. Netanyahu. We should be willing students and stop all this protesting and complaining.

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Bob Passi

Writing about politics and society, humanity, empowerment, short stories, poetry/Book: Saving Democracy: The 2016 Presidential Election, bobpassi.substack.com